Number 5 is alive: Meccano Meccanoid is a build your own robot

Meccano is set to launch a build your own robot later this year which is likely to become one of the must have gadgets for Christmas 2015.

Called Meccanoid G15 KS, it is made with Meccano parts, stands around 4ft tall and uses an open source Robotics Building platform to let you programme thousands of different commands either via a dedicated app, your voice, or from watching you do the task first.

"Simplicity was central to the design and development from day one so we developed three programming options. First, a cool new tech we call 'LIM' – Learned Intelligent Movement. Second, a 'Ragdoll' Avatar control via an app, and finally and perhaps the most fun of all, Motion capture. All allow someone with no prior experience to program with ease in moments”, a spokesman for the company told us at CES in Las Vegas.

At the heart of the system is something Meccano are calling the Mecca Brain, and it's this box that lets you do all the robotic features.

But rather than forcing you to learn code, or run through hours of individual instructions, the Meccanoid's key feature that will appeal to kids is the LIM mode. Press record and you can then move its limbs around with the robot learning everything you do. Once you press play, it will simply repeat what you've taught it.

Other features include being able to set up instructions based on voice commands and motion capture using a mobile phone like the iPhone 6 to record what you do in front of it.

While Meccano was demoing the set as a stand-up robot, it says the possibilities of what you can make are endless. Other examples they were keen to show us included dinosaurs and picking up water bottle trucks.

The set, including all the bits you need to get everything working, will cost around $400 when it goes on sale in the second half of this year.